From the President's Desk: March 20, 2024

Participation in athletic events assists students in feeling a sense of belonging, and studies indicate this may also help increase educational success and psychological and social development. Lakeland College Rustlers measure success through the three C’s:

• Success in the classroom
• Success in competition
• Success in the community.

This past year has been one of the most successful periods in the history of Rustler Athletics at Lakeland College.

Our Rustler student-athletes continue to excel as you can see by this list of recent accomplishments:

• women’s volleyball won an ACAC and a CCAA gold medal for the second consecutive year!
• women’s basketball won ACAC gold and were undefeated this season! Lakeland College hosted the CCAA Women’s Basketball National Championships and won a gold medal!
• mixed curling won their third straight ACAC gold medal.
• women’s hockey won an ACAC silver medal.
• men’s basketball won ACAC bronze.
• men’s volleyball placed fourth at the ACAC Championships.
• men’s and women’s soccer had a successful outdoor season, and both competed at the futsal championships.
• many students participated in Lakeland College’s annual Little Royal events.
• Rustler rowing crews were busy developing their teams with many novice rowers and are looking forward to the 2024-2025 season. At the Alberta indoor championships, all of the Rustler crew members posted personal best times over their various 2000-meter races.

Congratulations! These are all fantastic achievements by our student athletes.

Taylor Dyer, men’s volleyball, Chris King, women’s basketball, and Morgan Mann, women’s hockey, received ACAC Coach of the Year awards. Chris King was also named CCAA Coach of the Year. Congratulations Taylor, Chris and Morgan, and thank you to all the coaches and support staff.

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Alan Rogan, athletics director, and his team for organizing a very successful CCAA National Championship at Lakeland College.

Thanks to our donors’ generosity, a total of 1,125 awards, bursaries, and scholarships have been awarded, valued at $1.37 million for the 2023-24 academic year.

Lakeland College also earned recognition as one of the Top 80 Employers of Alberta for the eighth consecutive year in a row. Published by Mediacorp Canada Inc., Alberta’s Top Employers designation recognizes employers in Alberta who led their industries in offering exceptional places to work. Lakeland was also selected for The Career Directory 2024 as a top employer for recent graduates.

As you can see, students and staff continue to uphold our motto “Ever to Excel”. I am honoured to be part of this amazing Lakeland College team and express my sincere gratitude for everyone’s incredible effort, hard work and dedication to support student success and for another exceptional year.

Until next time,
Alice